Literature Review of Conflicts and Management

Discuss about the Developing Management Capability.

This study will let us know about the tools and methods that will help us to maintain the people of the organization and the conflicts takes place between them. As we know that conflicts and negotiation presents in every organization whether the organization is small or big. With the help of some theories and model these conflicts can be resolved easily with no grudges in the minds and hearts of people.  Negotiation is an easy way by which organizations are managing the conflicts between the people. Conflicts can takes place between every person related to the organization like stake holders, customers, suppliers, competitors, debtors, creditors, internal staff, etc.

Negotiation is very complicated in nature as there is no perfect method to negotiate between the parties discovered yet.  Negotiation sometimes results in losses for the organizations as the company has to compromise with the other party for the sake of relations in future. Basically, there are two types of negotiations present to solve the conflicts. One is cooperative negotiation and other one is competitive negotiation. It is not easy for manager to manage the entire people o the organization. To help him, there are various departments who directly or indirectly help him to manage the organization. This department will help in the HR management, maintenance of relationship, formation of strategies, etc.

Despite of the all the above the main aim of this study is to maintain the conflict and negotiation process in the organization. We will learn many theories that are used in the companies to resolve the conflicts.

Negotiation and conflicts are two terms that present in every business whether it is small or big. These conflicts arise between the stakeholders and other members related to the organization. Stakeholders like public, government, competitors, managers, etc. for negotiation there s one more word which defines it in a better way that is amicable solution for all the problems related to the conflicts. There is a link between negotiation and conflicts as the negotiation takes place after the conflicts between two or more parties.  These conflicts and negotiation can be avoided in small organization as there are only on owner who is responsible for all the functioning of the organization. But, in big organizations it becomes difficult to handle the conflicts among employees (Hendrix, 2015).

Conflict is a situation in which two parties have different opinions for the similar situation or condition. Such conflicts not only arise in companies, or between the employees, but also in the personal life of the people. Conflicts are the part of life that can be solved through mutual understanding. The biggest reason of the conflicts is the disagreement of the other party involved. Many reasons sue to which conflict tales place are emotions of the people,  variations in nature and behavior, changes in decision making approaches, perceptions of people, etc. generally. The conflicts occurs when any new strategy or imitative taken by the authority that may relate to anything like distribution of powers, work, objectives, etc. (Kurtz, 2008)

Conflict

The end part of conflict is termed as negotiation in which both the parties with a mutual understanding take a decision which is beneficial for both. There are various approaches which help to take such decision making. The approaches related to the negotiation are integrative bargaining and distributive bargaining strategies, etc. These approaches are helping organizations in the procedure of negotiation. Many times, when the process of negotiation is not possible with the two parties who are involved in conflict, in that case a third involved in the process of negotiation. That party is known as arbitrators and consultants (Huang, 2010).

It has notices that conflict are not of one type. Instead they occur due to many situations. Firstly, when conflict will occur than there is a misconception of information between the two parties take place. Second conflict occur when the managers are not ready for the changes takes place in the organization, this types of conflicts are termed a s forth role conflicts. To minimize such conflicts, there is a need that managers are adaptable to for the changes which can avoid conflicts in the organization.  Sometimes, conflicts occur due to misrepresentation or misinformation of any data. Some conflicts arise due to belief and values of people, background, education, and other reasons related to the personality that results in decision making and assumptions. This leads in difference between the people and conflicts related t the personality arises. Generally, in every organization the employees belong to different cultures and diversities. In this case, a small interaction changes into big arguments in which all people claim that they are right and others are wrong. To have a conflict free environment, there is a need of stress free and unfavorable environment, job security, etc.

If we look for the traditional view then conflict was a detrimental procedure of every organization either externally or internally. It was said by the researchers that the conflicts must be avoided that means there should be less communication and sharing takes place among the employees. In past times, the employees are least interactive and frank to each other. To get desirable outcomes, the conflicts must be avoided. It is observes that conflicts are the inevitable part of each and every organization. It is one of the important arguments of an organization as they are goods for the effective teamwork (Beroggi, 2004).

These types of conflicts are the positive conflicts as both the parties agree to disagree on a certain point in a very polite and healthy way. In functional conflicts, the main focus is on task as it is task oriented conflicts and people try to improve their relations. In a constructive way, the relationship between clients and parties is improved by providing them time and energy. People work together that brings good working condition in the organization. There are chances to upgrade the workflow and innovation in the organization. It leads in win-win situations for both the parties involved in the argument. For example- the air bags in the car are the win situation to both the customers and the manufacturers of car (Posthuma, 2013).

Sources of Conflict

This type of conflicts is just opposite to functional conflict as it is very bitter and unhealthy in nature. Dysfunctional conflicts are long tern conflicts and directly linked with the person based conflicts. It is said that when functional conflicts remains for the longer period of time then they convert into dysfunctional conflicts. The parties have to solve the conflicts as soon as possible. It results in escalation and dissatisfaction among the employees. This can be prevented though focusing on the groups and teams and develop faithfulness among them. Although, it is not one of the most demanding style of leadership, but still it is helpful in management of internal and external environment (Haynes, 2015).

Negotiation is the process to resolve the conflicts that are inevitable in nature. Negation takes place when there are many parties of different views involved in the discussion and argument. Mainly, there are two kinds of negotiation available for the conflicts that are integrative and distributive negotiation. The integrative negotiation arises when there is a need to find the reasons of conflicts and distributive is when there is a division of already founded reasons of the parties of negotiation (“Negotiation and Conflict Management Research – Call for Papers”, 2010).

One of the famous tool to manage the conflicts and negotiation of an organization is though Thomas Kilmann conflicts instrument mode (TKI) that was approximately 30 years old and there are more than 7 million copies of TKI was published till date (Thomas and Kilmann 2015).

It is one of the most self scoring models to evaluate conflict resolution. TKI model assists the potential of the conflicts and help to resolve them. It can solve finance, management, human resource, etc. It basically considers two areas; one is assertiveness in which no party is concern for the other one and cooperativeness means to please for the concern of other party (Krampe, 2016).

According to the TKI model, I can say that I have more accommodating and cooperating behavior instead of competitiveness and avoiding. The compromising characteristic is present on an average scale. We can say that accommodating and cooperating is one and the same characters. These are the most important characteristics that one should carry within them. It guides to manage the conflicts and roots of the same. In the case of conflict if one arty tries to understand the conflicts and try to solve it then the other party also cooperate with the other party. It shows that one party’s accommodating behavior changes the behavior of other party. In this way, TKI suggest that individuals should carry some collaborating and cooperative behavior. The other behavior we talked in collaborating which is as good as cooperativeness.  As I scored highest score in this character I am opposite from avoiding. I generally try to deep dig myself into the reasons for conflicts and then find out the reason for the conflicts. This is the best way to solve any conflicts. It shows that the person has the potential to explore the problems and find effective solutions to it (Foster, 2006).

An Evolution of Conflict

The other negative models are compromising that is the middle scale of competing and accommodating. As scored moderate marks in this character, I need to work out on this and remove such bad character for my personality (Dickey, 2015).

The other characters of TKI are avoiding and competing. Competing refers to a situation when the individuals do not focus on other’s problems and try to full their own egos. Such characteristic are not at all good for any individuals as it leaves a bad impression on others. Avoiding is the worst situation in which the individual not only avoid their own concern but also the concern of others. It shows that these types of persons are not eligible to handle anything by their own, they just wait for the opportunities and waste the time of themselves and others. They try to escape e form the situations diplomatically and postpone the conflicts for longer time. I am happy that I scored less marks in both of these characters and I do not have to work out on the same (Bell, 2016).

It is a tool that helps to empowers the performance of an individual and also the organization as it provides many sophisticated tools of managing conflicts. It is four stage processes for the management of conflicts and resolution. It provides advices that help an organization to avoid conflicts.

When there is a change, transformation, transition, etc. takes place in an organization then the leaders need to mange conflicts in the organization. This tool gives an in-depth knowledge to manage the organization and its individuals so that an understanding can be developed between them. It helps to construct cohesiveness, relations, trust, honesty, connections, etc, so that the employees feel good while working and the conflicts can be avoided.

1. Competing
2. Accommodating
3. Avoiding
4. Collaborating
5. Compromising

There are many tools and models provided by Thomas Kilmann conflict instrument mode in the study that helps to have an effective management of conflicts and negotiation. These models should be taken into consideration to improve the situations of an organization. If we focus then some models are really important with their holistic view point. With the aspect of proper management of conflict, these models must applied t have desired outputs.  In the study, competing is a negative character but it stood right sometimes to stand for the right thing instead of cooperating for wring things. It should be improved to achieve the long as well as short term goals. It is suggested that for long term goals there is a need to set the characters as per competing and for short terms goals and conflicts with family and friends, compromise or collaborate characters are better. There is a need to emphasize on the points, work to attain the goals and position, and let others understand you in a better way. Once the goals are achieved then the task is to look back and appreciate yourself for what you have achieved with the hard work and dedication. Ultimately, this study will help you to manage and maintain conflicts management skills of yours (Beardsley & Lo, 2013).

Types of Conflicts

Conclusion

Thus, we can conclude that firstly conflicts are an inevitable situation that should be resolved as early as possible. It is not impossible to resolve the conflicts. One should take effective ways and methods to solve these conflicts. The need is only to understand the sources of conflict and then find ways to solve them. The best way is that prevent the elements due to which the conflicts occur. To apply this, there should be prominent negotiation practices that must be exercised to have an assurance of win-win situation. It is the part of functional conflict because it is positive in nature and focus on both the parties. The models of Thomas Kilmann provide some benchmarks and standards that help to understand the elements related to the behavior and character of an individual. They results in better understanding of the strengths and weakness one should carry with him or herself. These traits will help to have further knowledge about the real character of the individual associated to it. The overall study will help to bring improvement in the management of organization as well as individuals conflicts.

References

Beardsley, K. and Lo, N. (2013). Democratic Communities and Third-Party Conflict Management Conflict Management and Peace Science, 30(1), pp.76-93.

Bell, S. (2016). Power, territory, and interstate conflict. Conflict Management And Peace Science. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0738894216650428

Beroggi, G. (2004). Designing and evaluating E-management decision tools. New York: Springer.

Dickey, T. (2015). Integrating Unions in Integrated Conflict Management Systems. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 33(S1), S45-S66. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/crq.21143

Gillespie, R., Mullan, J. and Harrison, L. (2013). Managing medications: the role of informal caregivers of older adults and people living with dementia. A review of the literature. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 23(23-24), pp.3296-3308.

Foster, K. (2006). International Journal of Conflict Management changes publisher. International Journal Of Conflict Management, 17(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijcma.2006.34417aaa.001

Haynes, K. (2015). Diversionary conflict: Demonizing enemies or demonstrating competence?. Conflict Management And Peace Science. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0738894215593723

Hendrix, C. (2015). Oil prices and interstate conflict. Conflict Management And Peace Science. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0738894215606067

Huang, J. (2010). Unbundling task conflict and relationship conflict. International Journal Of Conflict Management, 21(3), 334-355. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10444061011063207

Jones, R. (2004). Managing people. Osborne Park, W.A.: Vocational Education & Training Publications.

Krampe, F. (2016). Water for peace? Post-conflict water resource management in Kosovo. Cooperation And Conflict. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0010836716652428

Kurtz, L. (2008). Encyclopedia of violence, peace, & conflict. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Negotiation and Conflict Management Research – Call for Papers. (2010). Negotiation And Conflict Management Research, 3(4), 400-401. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-4716.2010.00067.x

Posthuma, R. (2013). Conflict management in Israel. International Journal Of Conflict Management, 24(3). https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijcma.2013.34424caa.001

Tir, J. (2006). Domestic-Level Territorial Disputes: Conflict Management via Secession. Conflict Management And Peace Science, 23(4), 309-328. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07388940600972651